We study the cause of the signature over finite fields of integrability in two dimensional discrete dynamical systems by using theory from algebraic geometry. In particular the theory of elliptic curves is used to prove the major result of the thesis: that all birational maps that preserve an elliptic curve necessarily act on that elliptic curve as addition under the associated group law. Our result generalises special cases previously given in the literature. We apply this theorem to the specific cases when the ground fields are finite fields of prime order and the function field $mathbb{C}(t)$. In the former case, this yields an explanation of the aforementioned signature over finite fields of integrability. In the latter case we arrive at an analogue of the Arnol'd-Liouville theorem. Other results that are related to this approach to integrability are also proven and their consequences considered in examples. Of particular importance are two separate items: (i) we define a generalization of integrability called mixing and examine its relation to integrability; and (ii) we use the concept of rotation number to study differences and similarities between birational integrable maps that preserve the same foliation. The final chapter is given over to considering the existence of the signature of reversibility in higher (three and four) dimensional maps. A conjecture regarding the distribution of periodic orbits generated by such maps when considered over finite fields is given along with numerical evidence to support the conjecture.

We study the cause of the signature over finite fields of integrability in two dimensional discrete dynamical systems by using theory from algebraic geometry. In particular the theory of elliptic curves is used to prove the major result of the thesis: that all birational maps that preserve an elliptic curve necessarily act on that elliptic curve as addition under the associated group law. Our result generalises special cases previously given in the literature. We apply this theorem to the specific cases when the ground fields are finite fields of prime order and the function field $mathbb{C}(t)$. In the former case, this yields an explanation of the aforementioned signature over finite fields of integrability. In the latter case we arrive at an analogue of the Arnol'd-Liouville theorem. Other results that are related to this approach to integrability are also proven and their consequences considered in examples. Of particular importance are two separate items: (i) we define a generalization of integrability called mixing and examine its relation to integrability; and (ii) we use the concept of rotation number to study differences and similarities between birational integrable maps that preserve the same foliation. The final chapter is given over to considering the existence of the signature of reversibility in higher (three and four) dimensional maps. A conjecture regarding the distribution of periodic orbits generated by such maps when considered over finite fields is given along with numerical evidence to support the conjecture.

Cette thèse comporte trois chapitres indépendants portant sur l’itération des applicationsrationnelles sur des variétés projectives et plus spécifiquement sur l’étude du comportement dela suite des degrés des itérés de telles applications.Dans le premier chapitre, nous donnons une construction des invariants fondamentaux quesont les degrés dynamiques dans un cadre très général, et ce sans hypothèse ni sur la caractéristique ni sur les singularités de l’espace ambiant. Cette construction repose sur des propriétésde positivité des cycles algébriques, et propose une alternative aux approches analytiques deDinh et Sibony ou algébriques de Truong.Le second chapitre est issu d’un article écrit en commun avec Jian Xiao. Notre contributionporte sur des objets centraux en géométrie convexe appelés valuations. Nous transférons à l’espace des valuations des notions de positivité des cycles algébriques récemment introduites parLehmann et Xiao, ce qui nous permet d’étendre l’opération de convolution originellement définie par Bernig et Fu à une sous-classe de valuations suffisamment positives.Le troisième chapitre constitue le coeur de la thèse, et porte sur des estimations des degrésdynamiques des automorphismes dit modérés de la quadrique affine de dimension 3. Nos arguments sont de nature variée, et s’appuient sur l’action du groupe modéré sur un complexe carréCAT(0) et Gromov hyperbolique récemment introduite par Bisi, Furter et Lamy.Nous avons finalement collecté dans un dernier et court chapitre quelques pistes de recherchedirectement inspirées des travaux présentés ici. / This thesis is divided into three independent chapters on the iterates of rational maps on projective varieties and more specifically on the study of the growth of the degree sequences of the iterates of such maps. In the first chapter, we give a construction of the fundamental invariants called dynamical degrees. Our method holds in a very general setting, without any conditions on the characteristic of the field or on the singularities of the ambient space.This construction is based on the study of positivity properties of algebraic cycles and gives an alternative approach to the analytical technics of Dinh and Sibony or to the algebraic arguments of Truong.The second chapter is taken from an article written in joint work with Jian Xiao. Our paper focuses on central objects in convex geometry called valuations. We transfer some positivity notions of algebraic cycles recently introduced by Lehmann and Xiao, this allows us to extend the convolution operation defined by Bernig and Fu to a subspace of sufficiently positive valuations.The third chapter is the core of this thesis and focuses on the dynamical degrees of the so-called tame automorphisms of an affine quadric threefold. Our arguments are of various nature and rely on the action of the tame group on a CAT(0), Gromov hyperbolic square complex recently introduced by Bisi, Furter and Lamy. Finally, we have collected in the last chapter a few perpectives directly inspired by this work.